BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Traditionally, cork has been used to close bottles.

Unfortunately, cork has some disadvantages. Among others, such disadvantages include the problem that the-material is a natural product and therefore subject to natural quality variation. Further, however, the material is porous and it can harbour materials which are disadvantageous to any product being sealed using the cork.

Among such materials are a taint known as"TCA"and also, among other difficulties is the ability of the material to impart a unique flavour of its own related to its wood or woody character.

An alternative closure has been used and which is now generally referred to as a "Stelvin"closure.

Such a closure uses a thin metal shell which has an inner seal and this is placed on a bottle so that the seal is held under compression against an uppermost rim of the mouth of the bottle and the outer metal shell is held in position by a rolling of the metal into a nesting shape with a thread formed on the outside side of a mouth of the bottle.

Such a closure is considered to be by many experts in the field to be a superior closure but it is not highly regarded by many members of the public.

However, there is an increasing acceptance of a so-called"Stelvin"closure system.

OBJECT OF THIS INVENTION An object of this invention is to propose an alternative closure which can provide some of the better advantages of the so-called"Stelvin"closure but which has advantages of its own both in cost of installation in relation to any single bottle, and its applicability to a wider range of bottles as well as its ability to be modified more easily in ways which it is considered could assist in acceptability of this type of closure by the public.

BRIEF DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION In one form of this invention there is proposed a glass bottle closure for a bottle where the bottle has an uppermost mouth to be closed, the closure having a body of moulded plastics material having an outer surround with an inwardly directed step arranged to engage with an interlocking fit an integral collar outwardly extending from a neck of the bottle, the body further defining a cavity with a seal located beneath an upper inner surface of the body and adapted to be held under a sealing compression against an uppermost rim of the bottle mouth when the outer surround is engaging with interlocking fit the integral collar.

By using a plastics material to hold a sealing member with a compression seal against the rim of the mouth means that an economically manufacturable item can now be used which leads to a number of advantages which are not available with the current so-called"Stelvin"technology.

A first of these is that plastics material can have some resiliency so that it can be pushed into place over the mouth of a bottle until it reaches an interlocking fit by reason, for instance, co-incidence of an inwardly directed step being below a corresponding outward step of a collar of the bottle. Such an installation process is therefore able to be performed with relatively simple machinery and very quickly.

Subsequent removal by an intending user, can then be readily achieved, for instance, by having a portion of the step held in place by a part that can be torn away with relatively small pressure of a user releasing, therefore, the body and hence the compression on the seal so that access to the material within the bottle can be gained.

This is in contradiction to the current technique where a Stelvin closure uses a thread so that lifting of the outer body is achieved by rotation and there is a rim that is left below an outward portion of the bottle neck.

In preference, the seal is a member providing a substantially air impermeable barrier.

In preference, the outer surround includes a portion that is adapted to be torn away from a remainder portion of the surround, and including at least a portion of an inwardly extending step adapted to effect the interlocking fit.

In this way, by at least reducing the strength of a surrounding step provided by the closure outer surround, this then allows for manual removal of the closure from an interlocking fit position on a bottle.

In preference, the seal is a sheet of a lamina material including a metal sheet.

In preference, the seal is provided by a member having a circular periphery and having a metal inner part with at least one face coded by a plastics material.

In preference, that plastics material is polyvinyl chloride.

In preference, the seal includes material providing substantial resiliency on a side of the seal distal from the substantially impermeable barrier material where this is in a sealing position against the rim of a mouth.

In preference, such material providing substantial resiliency is a resilient material interposed between an inner downwardly facing surface of the body and the substantially impermeable material of the seal.

In a further form of this invention, it can reside in the method of closing a bottle where the closure is as identified as having one or more of the above characteristics the method including the step of forcing the body of the closure over the otherwise open top of the mouth of the bottle until there is effected an interlocking fit and where the seal is then held under sealing compression against an uppermost rim of the otherwise open mouth of the bottle.

In a further form of this invention it can be said to reside in the combination of a closure as characterized by having any one of the above features when in a closing position in relation to a bottle where the body of the closure is being held having an interlocking fit with an inwardly directed step engaging below an outwardly projecting collar of the bottle and where a seal held with resilient pressure against an uppermost rim of an otherwise open mouth of the bottle by the closure.

In a further form of this invention, it can reside in a method of opening a closure generally of the type being described where the step of opening includes tearing away at least a portion of the wall of a body providing an interlocking fit with an outwardly extending portion of the body.

In preference, the seal includes material providing substantial resiliency on a side of the seal distal from the substantially impermeable barrier material where this is in a sealing position against the rim of a mouth, such material providing substantial resiliency is a resilient material interposed between an inner downwardly facing surface of the body and the substantially impermeable material of the seal.

For a better understanding of this invention it will now be described with relation to preferred embodiments which shall be described with the assistance of drawings wherein: FIG. 1 is a cross section through the top of a bottle closed with a closure in accordance with the embodiment, FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the parts as shown in FIG. 1 where (a) is the body, (b) is a seal, and (c) is the top and neck a bottle, FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the embodiment as shown in FIGs. 1 and 2, in this case however the view being a perspective view including again the three elements, namely a body, seal and the top of a bottle, FIG 4-7 are cross sections of further embodiments of the invention, and FIG 8 is a perspective view of the embodiment shown in FIG 7.

Referring in detail to these drawings, the closure 1 has a body 2 of moulded plastics material which has an outer surround 3 with an inwardly directed step 4

which is of a diameter and shape so that it will fit with interlocking engagement and an integrally outwardly extending collar 5 which is formed as a part of a top 6 of a bottle. The body 2 is shaped so as to encompass and in this way define a cavity 7 which in the assembled mode as shown in FIG. 1 has a seal 8 which is thereby located within the cavity 7 and its position is such that when the body 2 is held by the effect of the interlocking step 4 engaging underneath the collar 5 at 9 then the seal 8 is caused to be under pressure between the top lip 10 of the bottle and the underneath surface 11 of the body 2.

Retaining tongues 13 assist in holding the seal 8 in position against accidental dislodgement while the body is separate from an interlocking position on a bottle.

The seal 8 embodiment is constructed as a laminate including a lowermost plastics material, a sheet of metal, a plastic supporting part and then behind this foam plastics.

The foam plastics material is chosen both in relation to its thickness and to its characteristics such as to be able to maintain over a longer period, sufficient resiliency to maintain a sufficient seal in the circumstances.

The advantage of a metal sheet is that metal is highly resistant to passage of gas therethrough and of course the lowermost surface is chosen to be of a plastics material which has a high food grade specification.

Now referring further to the body 2, and the outer surround 3, the inwardly directed step 4 is joined to a remainder of the skirt 13 by a line of weakness at 14, which in this case fully surrounds the skirt.

This allows therefore for a tab 15 to be manually accessible to a potential user so that this can be gripped and then pulled so that strip 16 can then be pulled away from the remainder of body 2 and this then will allow for the inwardly directed step 4 to be pulled away from the interlocking fit to the extent that there is not sufficient material then to stop the cap from being lifted away.

Fig 3 discloses a further embodiment of the invention where there is closure 20 having an outer surround 3 adapted to engage the collar 5 located on the neck of a wine bottle. The seal 8 is similar to that referred to in Fig 1, however, in addition to the seal 8 there is a annulus shaped seal 22 that resides between the seal 8, which

is disc shaped, and the upper outwardly extending portion 24 of collar 5. This arrangement then provides for a greater sealing effect by providing an additional barrier.

The annulus shaped seal 22 is made from a compressible plastics material. The inner diameter of the annulus seal 22 is sized to be a similar size to that of the outer diameter 26 of the mouth of the bottle, which according to current industry standards for CETI finished bottles is 270. 5 mm.

With reference to Fig 4, there is shown a further form of the closure 30, again having an outer surround 3 that is adapted to engage the collar 5 located on the neck of a wine bottle. In this instance the seal 31 so that it extends over the top lip 10 of the bottle, so that the portion 33 of the seal 31 resides close to the upper outwardly extending portion 24 of collar 5 when the closure 30 is in a sealing position.

Furthermore, in this configuration the lower most layer 36, a sheet of metal, overlaps the top lip 10 as opposed to merely contacting the top lip section. The over lap is shown at 38. Accordingly, there is now an increase in surface contact area between the layer 36 and the top lip of the bottle 10 that also then provides for a greater increase in the sealing effect.

The portion 33 of the seal 31 is bulbous shaped such that it provides an adequate liquid seal against the outer diameter 26 of the mouth of the bottle when the closure 31 is used to reseal the bottle.

FIG 5 shows a variant of the closure of FIG 4. The closure 40 has an outer surround 3 similar to that previously described. However, in this instance the sheet of metal 44 is positioned above the seal 42. As such, the outer portion 44 of seal 42 has in increased surface contact with the upper lip 10 and outer diameter 26.

The example shown in FIG 6 details a further embodiment of the current invention.

The closure 50 has an outer surround 58 adapted to engage the collar 5 located on the neck of a wine bottle. The closure 50 has a upper region 65 joined to a lower region 68. The lower region 68 consists of a annulus ring 60 that is attached to the uppermost region 65 by members 64.

The members 64 are shaped so that the inwardly directing step 70 engages the outwardly extending portion 72 of collar 5.

The annulus ring 64 is co-molded with the closure 50 such that it also has a shape that provides an interlocking fit with the outwardly extending portion 72 of collar 5.

The ring 64 can be removed from the closure 50 by way of gripping and pulling in an outward motion a tab attached to the ring 64, leaving the members 64 visible and interlocking with the collar 5. The closure 50 can then be removed by lifting away from the bottle As can now be seen, the body described can be manufactured economically and in large numbers by injection moulding and further there can be an installation process, which is to say location of this on bottles in a mass production manner which could allow for very rapid inclusion of these over the top of bottles.

Further, the technique which is to hold a seal in continuous sealing contact on the top of the mouth of the bottle, provides the advantages of a superior form of sealing which, in the case of products such as wine, will contribute to their long keeping while at the same time, allowing for production and installation in such a way that it is both economic and efficient.

The method of installation itself can include simply pushing the body over the head of the filled bottle to the extent that the respective inwardly and outwardly steps are aligned.

The location of the seal inside the body is a precursor to of course the installation process.

Many variations can be achieved from this specific embodiment.

This embodiment however is described so that it will be understood how this can be put into practice in a very economic way while still servicing the needs of the particular industries involved.